Articles Posted in General

As Syracuse Crunch fans all know by now, Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, your Central New York Injury Law Firm, is honoring “Everyday Heroes” at all Syracuse Crunch home hockey games this winter. “Everyday Heroes” are local community volunteers who have given their time and talents to a local charitable organization. In front of the whole Crunch crowd, we regal them, and their family and friends, with free game tickets, food, drink, etc.

Let me introduce you to Michaels Bersani Kalabanka’s latest “Everyday Hero”, eleven year-old Christopher Rawlins. Chris was born with Cerebral Palsy. He attends Reynolds Elementary School where he is an excellent student, plays the tuba and soccer, and participates in school plays. Chris has also participated in the Special Olympics and is a Jr Elk at the American Legion in Baldwinsville.

Nothing holds this kid back! He has a fantastic attitude, an infectious smile, and likes to keep friends and family entertained with knock-knock jokes. He is a huge Dallas Cowboys fan and can rattle off statistics on games and players.

As Syracuse Crunch fans all know by now, Michaels Bersani Kalabanka, your Central New York Injury Law Firm, is honoring “Everyday Heroes” at all Syracuse Crunch home hockey games this winter. “Everyday heroes” are local community volunteers who have given their time and talents to a local charitable organization. In front of the whole Crunch crowd, we regal them, and their family and friends, with free game tickets, food, drink, etc.

Now let me tell you about one of our recent “Everyday Hero” winners, Tim Coolbaugh.

For many guys Sundays means the couch, a brew and a game. Not for Tim (though he loves all three of those!). He has more important things to do. You can find him on Sundays rescuing and transporting abandoned dogs to and from Syracuse to Binghamton, Rochester, Albany or Canada. The only compensation Tim receives is the love of the dogs (and an occasional cat). He gives his time, use of his car, and his money. Why? To save dogs, many of which have been abandoned by “puppy mills” that can’t sell them for a profit.

Let’s say you’re feeling blue, have a few, get into a drunken stupor and decide to kill yourself by lying down on some nearby railroad tracks. Let’s say the railroad company, doing what railroad companies do, then runs a train along its tracks. The engineer spots you almost immediately, puts the train into emergency, but cannot stop the train before it reaches you. You get hurt.

Should you be able to sue the railroad? In De Los Santos v. MTA Long Island Rail Road, the Queens County judge says “no”. After reviewing the case law regarding a railroad’s liability for striking pedestrians on its tracks, he surmised that the “focus [must be] on whether the reaction of the train operator was reasonable under the attendant circumstances”, which they were here.

I represent injured people all day long. They sometimes have some fault in causing their own injury (we personal injury lawyers call this “comparative negligence”). But I don’t know if I could sue a railroad on behalf of a suicidal drunk who lies down on the tracks. Takes hutzpah.

As all of Auburn and Cayuga County knows, all summer long, at each home Auburn Doubleday baseball game, Michaels Bersani Kalabanka honored a”Hometown Hero“, that is, a local community volunteer who had given his or her time and talents to a local charitable organization. In front of the whole crowd, we regaled them, and their family and friends, with free game tickets, food, drink, etc.

But that was not enough for us. In fact, the program’s success only whetted our appetite for more! So now we have expanded the program to all of Central New York.

This fall and winter, and all the way through April, “Everyday Heroes” will be nominated, selected and then honored at all Syracuse Crunch home hockey games this winter.

Some things we think we know, even things we feel certain are true, turn out not to be, on closer examination, false. I have come across a recent example of this. I do not believe I have been alone in having assumed, all my life, that it is safer to live in the country than in a big city. Haven’t you, too, always assumed life up here in peaceful Central New York is safer than in those dangerous big cities like New York?

Well, your assumption (and mine) was wrong! A recent study shows that cities are in fact safer than the country. If you think about it, I’ll bet you can guess why. Here’s a hint: It has to do mostly with cars and guns.

Give up?